1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to fire-fighting vehicles having fluid discharge assemblies thereon and in particular to a fire-fighting vehicle that has a bumper-mounted fluid nozzle assembly pivotally mounted on the outer end of an extensible fluid-carrying boom and that can be mounted on the forward end of the vehicle in substantially the center of the forward end for selectively receiving fluid and being movable between a first retracted position and a second fully extended position in front of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
There are many different types of fire-fighting equipment such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,245, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, in which an aerial lift is used with a vehicle for positioning a fluid nozzle on the outer end of an upper boom that is coupled at its inner end to the outer end of a lower boom. The lower boom can be selectively raised and lowered in a plane from and above the horizontal and rotated about a vertical axis. The advantage of the aerial lift disclosed therein is that the assembly has an upper boom that can be tilted or pivoted toward the ground as well as being pivotable upwardly. Further, it has a nozzle assembly on the outer end of the upper boom which can be pivoted both in the vertical plane and rotated in a plane perpendicular to the vertical plane. Thus, with the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,245, an operator of the vehicle having the aerial lift thereon can drive towards the fire and position the booms and nozzle in any position advantageous to ejecting fire-fighting chemicals on the blaze. In the vehicle there is a control console that has a first joystick for positioning the booms in a vertical plane and a second joystick for positioning the nozzle in both the vertical and the horizontal planes.
There are many instances in the fighting of fires where it would not be required to have such a complicated and large and expensive boom system when a shorter boom system mounted directly in front of the vehicle and in view of the operator could be retracted or extended very quickly. Such a boom could have the nozzle assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,245, which is pivotable both in the vertical plane and in a plane perpendicular to the vertical plane.